


Memory or Myth?

by Lenny9987



Series: Unrelated Faithlets [2]
Category: Outlander Series - Diana Gabaldon
Genre: Other, minor Voyager spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-20
Updated: 2016-01-20
Packaged: 2018-05-15 05:19:08
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5772787
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lenny9987/pseuds/Lenny9987
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One of my Unrelated Faithlets.</p>
<p>Faith joins Claire when she passes through the stones once more to find Jamie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memory or Myth?

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted fic from Tumblr after my initial untitled ficlet.
> 
> "nyhnight said: Aaah that’s beaautiful! More pleease! Grown up Faith seeing her dad again when Claire return would be amaaazing!"

Claire wasn’t entirely surprised that Faith had decided to join her on the journey through the stones. She had half hoped that Faith’s determination to accompany her would inspire Brianna to come as well - the thought of leaving her behind tore Claire’s heart in two. But she knew Bree was old enough to make up her own mind and she suspected Bree’s heart might have had a few things to say on the matter based on the looks that passed between her younger daughter and Roger Wakefield. 

Faith squeezed Claire’s hand as the carriage rocked along the road into Edinburgh. She could see there was much Faith wanted to say but eyeing their traveling companions, she kept silent. Claire wondered how much - if any - of Scotland Faith really remembered and how much of it she’d appropriated from Claire’s own stories of the first two years of her life. 

Faith’s nerves proved to be nothing when compared to her own. 

They located the print shop and Claire found herself pausing in the street outside, hesitating, all the possibilities for how Jamie might have moved on in twenty years running through her mind. 

“I can go in first if you like,” Faith offered. 

Claire nodded. While she wasn’t sure how Jamie would react to seeing her again, Faith was his daughter and he’d welcome her with open arms regardless of what he felt - or no longer felt - for her mother.

Faith led Claire to the window first, trying to make out the interior of the shop. She heard the bell above the door before she was even aware Faith had left her side. 

 

* * *

 

Faith’s eyes adjusted quickly to the gloom of the shop and she was able to make out her father’s form, bent over the press at the back. 

“Is that you, Geordie?”

“Da?” Faith’s voice squeaked. She cleared it to try again, louder, but he had turned to see who it was that had walked into his shop.

“Sassenach?” His brow furrowed in confusion. He straightened at the press and turned to face his visitor. He’d had enough visions of Claire over the years to know this wasn’t a vision. She had Claire’s face but there was something… not quite right. 

She was too young for one thing - younger and softer than Claire had ever been when he knew her. Even from the earliest days he knew her, Claire’s whisky eyes had lived and seen more than had this blue-eyed lass before him.

His heart stopped for a brief moment and he leaned back against the press to keep his feet, causing the large piece of equipment to groan as it slid a few inches across the floor. 

“Faith?” 

A broad smile bloomed across Faith’s face. “Da,” she said, running and meeting him at the counter. He lifted the flap and came through to wrap his daughter in his arms. 

“Ye’re… what’re ye doing here lass? What - why -” Jamie couldn’t form a coherent thought as his mind struggled to reconcile the round-faced, curly-haired toddler he’d sent through the stones with the tall and graceful young woman before him. She was so like Claire it made his heart leap to his throat. 

“I… I’ve missed you, Da,” Faith said with tears in her eyes. 

“Ye remember me?” Jamie asked in disbelief. “Truly?”

“I think so,” she admitted. “I know I asked about you a lot when I was little. Mama told us stories - I’m not completely sure which are memories anymore -but I know I remember this,” she said as she squeezed him and buried her face in the front of his shirt, breathing him in. 

“Us?” Jamie repeated with understanding dawning. “Yer mam and the bairn… they’re all right?”

Faith pulled back to look up at his face. “Bree stayed behind but Mama came here with me.” She nodded towards the window where the shadow of a figure hovered on the other side of the glass.

“Claire,” he breathed as his body tensed. 

The figure moved to come through the door. 

 

* * *

 

They stood for a moment just looking at one another across the room while Faith shrank to one side, suddenly feeling like an intruder but also unable to pull her eyes away from the scene. 

Claire was the first to step forward. 

“Jamie,” she whispered, her longing pulling him a few steps in her direction.

“Claire,” he responded, reaching out to tuck a stray curl behind her ear. “Mo nighean donn.” 

Claire broke into a smile as she closed the gap between them and threw her arms around his neck. He arms locked around her back in response, crushing her against him as he rested his chin on her shoulder and turned his face into her hair, breathing deeply. 

“I thought… I thought you were dead,” Claire whimpered, as the tears began to fall and her body started to shake. Jamie shook too and they sank slowly to the floor refusing to relinquish their hold of one another as their legs ceased to support them. 

Their mutual shaking and tears subsided and they looked up to see Faith watching them, mesmerized by the scene. Jamie let go of Claire with one arm to encourage Faith to join their embrace. She wiped her eyes and dropped to the floor beside them, Jamie’s arm enveloping her in a very familiar warmth. 


End file.
